Brothers
by Silverfyshxin
Summary: He knows that were it any other lion, he would have him leave the pride. But this one is his brother and brothers do not do these things to one another.' Oneshot.


Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Disney.

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**Brothers **

He wonders, at times, why he trusts his brother quite as much as he does. Times when, for an instant, he sees a little more malice than his brother's slight jealousy of him warrants. Times at which he fears a little for himself and his son.

Then he remembers that this is his brother and his brother has never been able to lay a paw on him, even as cubs.

Sometimes, when he wonders about some of the things his brother has done, what he might be doing when he sneaks away from Pride Rock, he catches himself. For this is his brother.

He is the King of the Pridelands and his brother is one of his subjects. The Pridelands is famed for the loyalty its subjects have for their King.

He knows Zazu does not trust his brother. He has heard his advisor gossiping with—or rather, gossiping _to_—some of the other birds about his feelings on the King's brother on more than one occasion. Of course Zazu would never say it to his face, but it is times like those that he wonders if perhaps he ought to be more wary of his brother. His sly, cunning brother.

But then he remembers that this is his brother, and his brother is of his pride and no one of his pride would ever hurt him.

He knows Sarabi does not trust his brother, not that _she_ would tell it to him to his face either. It is the little ways she manipulates events around her so that she is never alone with his brother that tells him of her distrust. And again a little twinge of suspicion picks at his heart.

He knows the others in the pride do not trust his brother, because where Sarabi leads, they follow, and will, until his son succeeds him and acquires his own mate. He knows they do not like his brother's mate. They do not like his brother's choice of company, and they do not like his brother.

He does not like the glimpse he catches of his brother's jealousy of his son, that day when he and Zazu paid the other lion a visit. He does not like that it gives him a reason to fear his brother, does not like that it gives Zazu an opening to jab slyly at his brother, does not like having to reprimand Zazu lightly, because he knows it's _true_. He does not like the way his brother sneaks around and incites the lionesses' ire against his brother and does not like that his brother is trying to tear down the pride. He does not like that he reluctantly agrees with the others and does not like that his brother smirks quietly in the background as these things are said because if he knows they are being said then his brother surely must as well. He does not like that his brother makes no attempt to refute the abysmal opinion almost everyone in the Pridelands have of him and he does not like the thought that his brother does not refute it because it is true. He does not like that he wants to be wrong about his brother, in the secret place of his heart, where he screams that he should throw his brother out of his pride.

He knows that were it any other lion, he would have him leave the pride. But this one is his brother and brothers do not do these things to one another. Brothers do not mistreat each other, insofar as their positions allow (and he has always tried to treat his brother fairly, some would say unfairly well, despite his brother's imagined slight against himself), and brothers do not play the little games of power that his brother delights in playing. Brothers do not use each other as pawns in games that have no name and many names at the same time. Brothers do not scheme and plot and play against one another in games. Brothers do not hurt one another in the ways that _truly_ matter. Because they are _family_, a different family from him and Sarabi or him and Zazu, or him and the rest of the pride. They are _brothers_ and brothers are special because there is no other relationship as that between him and his brother that are as strong and as weak at the same time.

He thinks Zazu will reply caustically to that thought as the weak being his and his brother's communication and the strong being his brother's feelings towards him. But he does not that that is all there is between them. There is more. There _must_ be more because they grew up together and he knows his brother in a way no one else does, as his brother knows him in a way no other does, or ever will, because he cannot go back to being a cub and grow up exactly the same as he did with his brother.

And perhaps this would not be enough either, save that he has a son and his son seems to be the sole other creature in the entire Pridelands who does not view his brother, his son's uncle, as an ugly scarred creature. His son looks at his brother with a sort of pride, different from what his son looks at him with, but almost similar enough for him to be jealous if he did not—he supposes the word he needs here is _love_—his brother with all the bittersweet memories of cubhood and the all the pride in an elder brother's heart.

He watches his son pull playfully at his brother's ear and thinks to himself that they three are the only one linked by his own father's blood, which is strong enough to ensure that his son will be king and his child will be the ruler of Pride Rock and all their children and grandchildren will rule this land he watches over.

As he watches as his beloved son gambols away from his brother that there is an odd sort of quirking of his brother's lips that could be interpreted as a smile in the right light, and he is sure that he has not merely imagined it. It is enough to make him break out in one of his own big smiles that Sarabi says is full of enough warmth to rival the sun's own life-giving rays.

And Mufasa walks away, knowing that despite the little twinges of his heart from time to time, he knows that Scar will never hurt him, for they are _brothers_. And that is all there is to it.

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A/N: I was working on a two thousand piece Disney puzzle with a lot of different Disney characters in it. When I got to the TLK bit, I turned on the TLK soundtrack on my iPod and things just moved from there. I'm thinking of doing a Scar piece (mostly because of _Be Prepared_), of which the plotbunny has bitten me rather hard. 


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